Botcon 2011 Saturday report

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Our Saturday journey started with another trip to the dealer room, and whilst we got through the day without buying anything we did take the opportunity to take some more photographs that will be uploaded upon our return to the UK due to the slow internet connection we have out here, as well had having Aaron Archer sign our custom Angry Archer Mighty Mugg that was designed and created by Hamster Customs AKA Minion.  Aaron was very impressed by the Muggs as was ­Eric Siebenaler.  We have a photo of Aaron holding the Mugg that we will share with you all along with the other images.

The IDW panel went over their upcoming releases, pretty much everything that had already been announced though it did announce that Flint Dille would be writing a new \"Digital Only\" Transformers comic series with the head of World of Warcraf, called Trasformers Autocracy which will be available on the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.  This story will focus on the post Megatron period of Cybertrons History and the start of the Great War.  It should be stated that both Nick Roache and James Roberts names were greated with thunderous applause by the audience wheneve the panel touched on both their past and future work.

As it approached time for the Hasbro Panel, we decided to head back to the ballroom where they ran through some upcoming releases both for 2011 as wel l as some sneak peaks at 2012.  First of they ran through the lines that will be released this year including Dark of the Moon, Transformers Prime, Kre-o, Transformers Generations and Rescue Bots.  They began with the Rescue Bots explaining how it is aimed at 3-6 year olds and will have a supporting cartoon for pre-schoolers.  The idea is that they are a specialist unit of Autobots, setup to for rescue.  The figures will focus on new characters but will include also include an Optimus Prime and Bumblebee toy.  The other characters are Blades, Chase, Heatwave and I believe Dozer (the bulldozer) but the mic was muffled at this time.

Kre-O was the next line they then focused on.  This construction line is basically a follow-up of the Built-To-Rule concept, though each building kit will also come with some mini-figures known as Kreons.

For the Reveal The Shield figures they confirmed that the line has ended but that they are trying to find a way of mass releasing the last figures within the US as well as possible re-releasing other short-packed figures.

It was confirmed that Generations will continue throughout the year along side the Dark of the Moon line.

The focus of the panel then shifted to Dark of the Moon.  First they explained the story behind MechTech.  The wanted to remove the gimmicks from the toys themselves so tahat they would not hinde the transformations, but they still needed a gimmick for marketing, so they decided on having an external weapon.  The initial concepts were to have the weapons combine which is why they have the plugs. The following toys were shown:

 Air Raid (32365), Armour Topspin (36106), Dark Iron (36107) who is a stingray car whose colour scheme is based off of Beast Wars Quicksrike, Cannon Force Ironhide (36871) who is a red recolour of the voyager Ironhide, Leader Class Ironhide (29698) whom they have given multiple weapons to help highlight his standing within the Autobots as the weapons specialist.  Next up was Ultimate Optimus Prime (28748) who is the Optimus Prime with trailer.  They wanted to make the toy as big as possible to that he would look impressive standing on people\'s shelves.  The SDCC exclusive figure was shown next, this toy is simply a repackaged Ultimate Optimus Prime, but comes packaged in vehicle mode witin foild packaging and with a set of G1 inspired stickers for the trailer.  Following on from the Optimus Prime\'s, the Human Alliance figures were then shown.  First up was Roadbuster (292621) who was then followed with a couple of slides on the new Cyberverse subline.  This line will run throughout 2011 and 2012 and is focused on playsets.  The line stars with a Shockwave (29738), Ratchet and The Ark, which comes with a Roller mini-figure.  Moving away from Cyberverse, the presentation then began to look at the store exclusives.  First up were the Toys R Us Transscan series.  These start with Sideswipe and Ironhide and then move onto Ratchet and Bumblebee.  Elita-1 was shown alogn with Spacecase, Bumblebee and Jazz.  The Target exclusives are going to a Human Alliance Leadfoot who is deco\'ed out with the Target logo and then a deluxe 2-pack of Leadfoot (in the target colours) and Twintwist.  The WalMart exclusives are another Bumblebee and a Sideswipe.  Sideswipe has the numbers 04 painting on the side in reference to his original Japanese release where he was the 4th figure to be released.

The 25th Anniversary Unicron was shown as an Amazon exclusive.  The figure is recoloured from the recent Japanese release to be cartoon accurate.  We have taken plenty of images that you will be able to use as a reference in the future but basically the toy has a lot of paint-apps but I am not convinced that it is more accurate than the Japanese release.  The shade of orange on the figure didn\'t quite look right to me.

After Unicron the Transformers Prime toys were shown.  There release date is the 1st December 2011 and not the date that was shown on the cards in the Hasbro display the previous days.  The 2nd series of te cartoon show will debut a few days earlier on the 28th November.  The first wave of figures include a deluxe Arcee, dexlue Starscream, deluxe Bumblebee and an double-pack of Optimus Prime and Megatron that come with a DVD as well as mini-figures of the human companions.

Wave 2 of Transformers Prime was also shown either as grey prototypes or concept ar.  The releasd of the figures could change but the toys shown were Cliff Jumper, Vehicon, Terrorcon Cliffjumper, Voyager class Optimus Prime (36492) and Voyager Bulkhead (36491).

The SDCC exlusive Matrix was shown that holds an Optimus Prime within the center.

For 2012, he following figures were also shown.  Transformers Prime Cyberverse Ratchet, Transformers Prime Cyberverse Wheeljack, Transformers Prime Legion Bumblebee, Transformers Prime Legion Arcee, Transformers Prime Commander Optimus Prime, Transformers Prime deluxe Soundwave with Laserbeak, deluxe Ratchet, deluxe Wheeljack, Voyager Starscream.

They then breifly touched on the design process, that being Sketch -> CG Render -> Handbuilt model -> Machine Made.

They then started taking questions.  They confirmed that there will be toys for Wars For Cybertron 2.  The alternative heads that were shown on various instructions may be used for future exclusives but at the same time, may not be used.  They have no plans to release more Transformers Animated figures, as they do not fit into any other lines, but they will keep looking for a way to release Hydro-dive Bumblebee and Wingblade Optimus Prime.

When asked about future Mighty Muggs the reply was that they would only really be exclusives (so basically SDCC is the only place that may ever get more).

They would like to see a release of the third season of Transformers Animated, but stated that the most likely scenario would be for Shout Factory to released it much further down the line.

When asked about if they had any plans for articulated Transformers Prime human figures, they took a quick poll of the audience and then said they will consider it.  So basically they had no plans but might do in the future.

When asked if they would release a Generations Arcee they said they can\'t say anything only that they have something big they are working on for later in the year.

They were asked why the re-colours were released before new molds and not at the end of the lines, to which they simply stated that this was due to budgetary reasons.

They are starting a subscription service in conjunction with Fun Publications for G.I-Joe to release figures to collectors at a higher price that stores do not want, if that works then they will consider something similar for Transformers.

After the Hasbro panel eveyone was asked to leave the hall whilst they prepared for the live Transformers Prime script reading.  We went to collect our Press Passes that we were suppose to have got having been invited to attend the panel and the post-panel round table interviews with te cast.  Unfortunately whilst the press agency that contacted us had claimed that they had put our names down, we were not on any of the lists that Hasbro had.  Thankfully being full atendees we could still get into the live reading but we could not attend the press interviews afterwards.  The script reading went down really well, as was filmed and streamed live on the Internet via The Hub and Facebook.

We headed off for some lunch and then another quick walk around the dealer room to catch up with a few people so we missed most of the Activision / High Moon Studios panel, but we did catch the end where they confirmed that there would be lots of DLC content b ut that they could not comment on which characters it would be.  They also could not coment on Soundwaves modes in the game (at the request of Michael Bay) nor on what they would do with a Generation One license.

This panel was followed by the Collectors Club panel. The panel revealed that te next collectors club exclusives will be Runamuck and Roundabout (using the RTS Wheeljack and Tracks molds) followed by a Shattered Glass Drift.

The final panel of the day was the 25th Anniversary of Transformers The Movie.  This was fun panel that included some advise for would-be voice actors, some tales from the past and comedy sketches.